Friday morning, John Carlson missed the Capitals morning skate and later was held out of the team’s 2-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Capitals said Carlson suffered a lower-body injury, but it must not have been that serious, because Carly returned to the ice Saturday for practice.

During rushes, Carlson skated with a new D partner on the second pairing: Dmitry Orlov.

“It was a really positive sign that he skated today,” Reirden said. “We’ll see how he responds for the rest of the day and tomorrow morning. We hope to have him back tomorrow night.

“We don’t want to put him in a situation where he can make anything worse,” Reirden continued. “He needs to be real close to 100 percent if he’s going to be back in for us. It was positive that he was skating.”

While Carlson returned, Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov missed practice due to a personal/family matter. The Capitals play the Arizona Coyotes at 5 pm on Sunday.